Trigun: Bounty Hunter
by Jack Rhien
Summary: A story that takes place after Trigun: Maximum (the manga) which focuses on a bounty hunter name Harry who searches for Vash. This man has no desire to kill him, but he has his reasons. One of the most peculiar things about him is his skills. They are as
1. The New Humanoid Typhoon?

**Trigun: Bounty Hunter**

**Chapter 1: A New Humanoid Typhoon?**

I sat there at the bar. My ruffled black hair shimmered in the light. My blue coat seemed to wave a little bit as the cool breeze flew into the building. I adjusted the amber sunglasses that matched my eyes. I shook the bottle of beer in my hand every now and then. I looked around the place I was in. Everyone was drinking and laughing loudly. I let out a sigh. How I wished I could have a good time like them. I couldn't. I knew that as long as I was searching for Vash the Stampede, I was doomed to be like this for a long time.

"Hey barkeep!" I said. "Bring me another one."

I took one last swig of the beer in my hand and gently placed it on the table. The barkeep handed me another bottle and took the empty that lied next to me. I let out a small groan as my head dipped. The man just looked at me. He stroked the gray, rough beard on his wrinkled face.

"That's your seventh one," He said to me. "Getting drunk doesn't take away your sorrows. It only numbs it."

"I don't have time to get drunk," I replied as I stood up. "I'm too busy going after the prize. Now if you'll excuse me, I must take my leave."

"Hey! You still need to pay!"

I grunted. I reached into my pocket and searched around. My eyes opened wide. I was broke. All I could feel were bullets. I spent my last $$500 on gun optimizing and ammo. I let out a loud growl. I turned my head and looked around. I squinted my eyes as I noticed a certain man. He was a lanky man who wore a cowboy hat, brown pants, a vest that matched, and a gray button-up shirt underneath. He had a cat like grin and eyes that were so dark that they seemed black. I started to grin. I turned my head to face the barkeep.

"Give me few minutes. I'll get you the cash you need."

"You're going to get $$20 in a few minutes?"

"I've done it before," I replied, still grinning.

I turned around and started to walk towards the man. He started to laugh at something. I started to chuckle silently. It wasn't the joke I was laughing at. I was laughing at the fact that I was gonna score $$25,000. They said he was the quickest person in the town. Well, he hasn't met me yet.

"Excuse me sir," I said.

The man's smile disappeared. He turned his head to face me. I had a fairly big smile on my face. The man let out a puzzled sound. Even he knew that I shouldn't have been smiling. He eyed me cautiously, trying to think of what I would do.

"What do you want?"

"I just thought you should know that there's a little something on your face."

"Huh? What? Where?"

I pulled my arm back and shot it forward. My glove-covered hands made contact with his face. He yelled out in pain as he fell backwards and onto the ground in his chair. He grabbed his face and groaned in frustration and irritation. I knelt down next to him and shot my fist at him again. He yelped and closed his eyes. I stopped right before my fist made contact with his face. He opened his eyes and let out a puzzled sound. I then flicked my finger right under his nose. He let out another yelp. I grinned as I pointed at the blood under his nose.

"Right there," I said.

"Why you!" He shouted, quickly getting to his feet. "Are you trying to start something you crazy fool?"

"Actually, I am," I replied as I stood up. "You see Mr. John James, I need money and you're the easiest way to get it. So unless you have $$25,000, I think you should come with me."

"What?" He shouted out. "How did you..."

I pulled out a wanted poster. I showed him the picture that matched his face. He had a nervous look on his youthful face as he took a step back. I continued to grin evilly at him.

"Now you have two options," I said. "You can come with me, I turn you in, and I get the money, or I shoot you down and I get the money."

He growled loudly. He took his gun out and aimed it at my head. He did it within the blink of an eye. Well, the blink of his eye anyway. I blinked twice as fast as he drew. He grinned as he put the gun back in his holster.

"Hmmm. Custom model seven-shooter," I said.

"I think I'll risk it. I know you can't shoot me down, bounty hunter."

I took out my gun. It was an enhanced .50 caliber magnum. The man stared at me with disbelief. I grinned and put the gun back in my holster. The man started to chuckled. Then he started to laugh. I gave him a puzzled look.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"That gun! It's bigger than your head! There's no way you could outgun me!"

"What makes you so sure? Your big mouth?"

He just glared at me and let out a small growl. He walked outside. I quickly followed him. As I walked out of the seemingly deserted town, I saw people sneaking back into their homes. Some were built of wood whereas others were built of stone. Either way, if a bullet went off course, they could penetrate the walls and probably kill someone. I hoped that wouldn't happen.

"What's your information?"

I turned my head to my left. I saw the barkeep two feet away from me. He had a pen and paper in his hand. He had a serious look in his eyes. I turned my head away and looked at John James.

"I said what's your information?"

"The undertaker isn't going to need my nor his information. But if you need to know, I'm six feet and three inches, one hundred fifty pounds, twenty-three years old, and on my gravestone (which I won't need for another seventy or eighty years), write "Killing me seemed like killing God, meaning impossible."

The barkeep gave me a funny look. He let out a sigh and shook his head as he walked off. I chuckled. I continued to stare at John James. His hand was next to his gun. My hands just hung at my side. I sighed and turned around, facing the other way. He let out a puzzled sound.

"What the hell are you doing? Do you always play with Death?"

"I'm not playing with death. I'm giving you a handicap."

He let out a loud laugh. I chuckled. He didn't know a single thing about me. I shook my head. I then straightened it out. I could hear his knuckles cracking. I waited for him to draw his gun. I couldn't see it, but I could hear it. I soon heard a cock. He fired the gun twice. As soon as he did that, I turned around at an unimaginable speed. I cocked my head to the right and fired. One bullet flew past my head. The other made contact with the bullet I fired. His bullet split in half and fell to the ground. His hat just as quickly flew off his head. He yelled in shock and horror. I walked towards him. He backed up. He turned around and started to run, but he tripped over his own feet. He landed on his face. He quickly sat up and turned his face towards me. He looked at me with fear. I had an evil smile as I aimed the gun at him.

"Now will you come with me? I really don't like to waste a life."

"AHHHH! Okay! I'll come! Just don't shoot me!"

"That's what I thought," I said. "Now get up."

He stood up very quickly. He was shaking violently. I chuckled a little bit. I soon stopped. I pushed the gun against his back. He moved forward as we headed towards the jail. He moved very slowly. I wanted him to hurry up, but I knew he wouldn't. He was as scared as hell. Apparently everyone was else was too. I couldn't blame them. I soon emptied the thoughts. When I got to the prison, he was thrown into the prison. He was still shaking. I loved the feeling when someone was afraid of me. I turned my head to face the sheriff.

"Now, about my payment."

"You're payment?" The man said. "Well... uh... We can't pay you at the time. We... uh... we don't have enough. I guess that's a big shame for you."

"Just give the cash."

The man growled quietly. He walked over to a table and looked in a cash holder. He grumbled as he sorted out the cash He walked back up to me and handed me the cash. I stared at the money. $$25,000 would hold me off for quite a while. I looked at the Sheriff and smiled.

"Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I gonna get some more beer. If you need me again, give me a call. Call me first and I may give you a discount."

He responded with a grunt. I laughed quietly as I walked off. I looked at the cash in my hand again. I couldn't help but smile with pleasure. I'll admit that I was glad I got the cash, but I felt even better when I fired off the gun. When I entered the saloon, everyone stared at me. They then quickly looked away. They started muttering something. I just smiled as I sat down at the bar. The barkeep stared at me nervously. I withdrew $$100 and held it out. The man stared at it.

"I told you I'd pay ya!" I said cheerfully.

"Uh, you don't need to pay," He said as he started to sweat. "After all... you took care of him. Besides... I..."

"Don't be scared of me!" I said in a still cheerful tone. "I only go after people who have a good bounty on their head!"

"I see. You still took care of that crook for us. Drinks are on the house tonight."

"Forget it! I have enough cash! Hey everyone! Drinks are on me for the rest of the day!"

Everyone let out a loud cheer. They laughed as I threw beer to them. I chugged them all down. For several hours, I drank until it reached night. Everyone was drunk except for me. I found it rather disappointing. It takes so much for me to lose my senses. When the party was done, I paid the barkeep $$500 and left the saloon. I let out a loud laugh. It was definitely the best day I've had for a while. As I walked off, I heard footsteps behind me. I growled silently. I turned around and aimed my gun. A girl let out a loud shriek. I holstered my gun.

There were two women. One was about five feet and six inches, looked like ninety-five pounds, and had purple dyed hair. She was wearing earrings. The other girl was about five feet and nine or ten inches, one hundred ten pounds (although there was something fishy about her left shoulder, for it seemed like it was extended, making her look heavier), had medium length brown hair, and she wore a yellow and green coat. The purple haired girl let out a sigh of relief. She then had an angered look on her face. She walked up to me with her hands at her hips. She was red in the cheeks. Apparently I made her madder than I thought.

"What are trying to do, kill us? And to think you aimed at a woman!"

"Sorry babe," I said, grinning. "Didn't mean to do that."

"Babe!? Why you... maybe it _was_ a mistake to talk to you."

"What, you thought it was a bad idea to try to get to know me better on a date?"

"Oh! You self-centered, womanizing... why I bothered talking to you I have no idea!"

"Well you're a fiery one, aren't you?"

She growled loudly. I laughed quietly. I had a big smile on my face.

"Sorry. I give you my deepest apologies. I can't help myself. I just had a little too much to drink tonight (as far you know, anyway)."

"We know. We were in there with you."

I let out a nervous yelp. I slapped my head and let out a sigh. Maybe I should have taken the old man's offer and not pay anything."

"What he did was still very nice, ma'am!" The brown haired one said. "I haven't seen many bounty hunters do that!"

I chuckled nervously as I scratched the back of my head. I finally realized that she called the purple-haired girl "ma'am" right there. So she was her boss. Well, it was fairly understandable, what with the way she acted.

"So what did you want?" I asked.

"We were curious about your skills," The purple haired girl said. "The way you dueled that man... the fact that you showed him mercy, dodged that bullet, and destroyed the other one... that was a lot like the skills of Vash. Are you related to him or something?"

"How do you know Vash is that good?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"Uh... we've been following him around for quite a while."

I knew she was lying. Well, she wasn't being completely dishonest. Of course she would be following him around, but I knew that she was with him for some time.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't know him. This was just a God given talent. I will admit that I have been following him around myself. I've been trying to find this guy for some time. If you want, you can tag along."

"What? With you? No way! I don't know what you could do to me!"

"Uh, ma'am?" The brown haired woman whispered. "Maybe we should go along with him. We don't know who could pop up around these parts. Besides, he's pretty good! Maybe he can help us when we need it."

"Listen, you've just seen how this guy's been acting! He's an alcoholic and a womanizer!"

"I know, but he could help us find Vash! Maybe you can find out about why he's this good!"

"Hmmm. Fine."

They turned around to face. The purple haired girl was smiling all of a sudden. The brown haired one was smiling the whole time except for when she was talking to the other one. I could automatically tell she was the friendlier one.

"Okay! We accept! It would probably be best if we went along!"

"Wow. That was easy. Well, I suppose we should introduce ourselves. Call me Harry."

I stuck out my hand. The purple haired girl hesitantly stuck her hand out. After what seemed like a minute, she finally shook my hand. She gave me a nervous look. I just smiled. The other girl came to shake my hand also. She had a rather strong grip.

"You can call me Meryl," The purple haired girl said.

"And I'm her partner, Millie!"

"Nice to meet you. Now, what do we do now? Go to an inn?"

"I suppose that would be good," Meryl said. "But don't expect me to share a room with you!"

"I don't," I said with a grin.

Meryl had a nervous look on her face. She already had a feeling that there was something on my mind. If she thought that, than she was right. I usually did have something up my sleeve. I hoped she wouldn't find out what it was.

"Follow me," I said.

I turned around and headed for the inn. The girls soon followed me. It was dark, but my eyes adjusted fairly well, making it so I could see pretty well. I looked around everywhere, making sure that there was no one else who wanted to make trouble. Unfortunately, there was no one. When we got inside, I checked out the place. It was fairly large and rustic. There were old-fashioned guns that rested on mantles and old style carpeting and rugs. I lowered my sunglasses to examine everything properly. I raised my glasses to their previous position. I turned around to face the girls.

"You two wait here. I'll see if I can cut us a deal here."

"Are you doing it because you think I'll mess up?" Meryl asked me irritably. "Or is it because I'm a woman?"

"Listen," I started to say. "I would only do that if _both_ of them applied. Right now I'm pretty sure you would mess up."

"What?" She said quietly, giving me an evil look.

"I'm just screwing with ya. I'm not that impolite, even though..."

"Even though what?"

"Er... nothing. Still, after what I pulled off, there is no way he could say no."

"That better be the reason, Harry."

I chuckled. I walked up to the man. He was wearing an old plug hat, a black suit jacket, gray pants, and a gray shirt with a black vest. As I started to converse with him, Meryl and Millie had a conversation.

"I'm starting to think that this was a bad idea," Meryl said.

"What do you mean, ma'am? He seems like a nice guy! After all, he did offer us his help."

"Yeah, so he could ogle me."

"Well, he is trying to get us a room. Doesn't that change your view of him?"

"No, it doesn't. I know he's up to something."

"Oh gi-rls?" I said in a singsong voice. "Come here! I got us a free room!"

"Really?" Millie said with a big smile. "You got a room?"

"That's great! Wait a minute. There has to be a catch."

"Uh, actually, there is," I said. "There's only one room."

Meryl stared at me with disbelief. She then looked at the innkeeper. She ran towards him, grabbing him by the collar and giving him a pleading look.

"You can't be serious! Please tell me there's another room! I don't want to be stuck with him!"

"Sorry ma'am," The man replied. "All I have is the two bed room upstairs. That's all I have to offer. If I were you, I'd take the offer. I don't give that many people free rooms."

Meryl stared at him for a second. Her head soon sank and she let out a sigh. She stuck her hand out for the key. The man dropped them into her hand. She went upstairs along with Millie. As Meryl passed by, I gave her a quick "motivation slap". She gave me an infuriated look. She slapped me across the face and quickly stormed upstairs. I rubbed my face and grinned. I changed my glance to the innkeeper. I handed him a slip of cash.

"Thanks for the "single" room."

"Your welcome," He said with a grin.

I chuckled as I headed upstairs. I searched for the room. When I found it, I quickly went inside. Meryl gave me an evil look. I moved back a step and chuckled nervously.

"If you ever do that again... I will sue you more than ten times your reward that you got today! Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, I get you. I give you my word, I won't do that again."

I wasn't sure if she noticed, but I crossed my fingers. Meryl gave me a "Humph!" and sat down on the bed.

"So who's sleeping where?" Millie asked.

"Well, I suppose that..."

"You two will get the beds while I keep guard out front," I said.

They stared at me. I had a big smile on my face. I started to turn around for the door. However, I stopped very briefly. I looked back at them and gave them a serious look. There was something was still bugging me.

"You never did tell me what you were doing here."

Millie and Meryl looked at each other. They then turned their heads to face me. I still had that serious look on my face. Meryl seemed rather hesitant, but she finally spoke up.

"We're part of the Bernadelli Insurance Company. We do damage assessment to the towns we visit. Of course, we also check out anything strange. You gun slinging caught our attention."

"I see. But what about Vash?"

"We're always looking for him," Millie said. "After all, he's a good friend of ours."

"Millie!"

"I knew it," I said. "I had a feeling you've been with him."

"You don't understand!" She said out nervously. "He 's helped us out a lot of times and saved a bunch of other people too! We're only repaying the debt! Besides he... oh crap!"

"If you're trying to protect him, don't worry. I don't ever plan on killing him. I just want to test his skills and see if he really has lived up to his name."

Meryl stared at me for a couple of seconds. She then let out a sigh of relief and leaned back on the bed. I chuckled and headed for the hallway. Meryl quickly sat up. I turned around.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I suppose you can stay in here if you want. Keep in mind that if you do anything funny, I'll throw you out of this place through the window instead of out the door!"

"Don't worry," I said with a grin. "I don't do things when women are asleep. You have my word! If I break it, I'll pay half of my reward!"

Meryl stared at me incredulously. She grinned soon after. I had a big smile on my face. I was gonna keep my promise. I wasn't going to harass her during the night. I was still gonna bug the crap out of her during the day.

"I'm going to sleep now," Millie said.

Under her coat, she let a huge gun drop to the ground. I stared at the gun with wide eyes in disbelief. She was big, but I didn't think that even I could hold that thing. I ran my hand through my hair, still staring at the gun.

"Maybe they didn't need me in the first place," I muttered. "Well, I suppose I'll keep guard. You never know which posse members could pop up."

Meryl nodded. She looked around nervously. Soon, they each got under a bed and quickly fell asleep. Millie snored quietly. Meryl was plain silent. I let out a sigh and looked at the door. I was going to keep guard like I said. I was gonna keep guard through most of the night to be honest. Why should I bug her at night when I would be doing it through most of the day?

"Good night," I said. "In case you hear any bangs, you'll know who's causing it."

Meryl raised her head. She already looked like they were drooping. Her head once again fell onto the pillow and she started to sleep again. I chuckled. I walked over to a corner of a room I stared at the door. For an hour straight, I stared at it. Soon after, my eyes began to sink. I exhaled slowly as I began to drift into sleep.

I was dreaming about something that happened to me a long time ago. I was inside a city that was being destroyed. People were running around and screaming. I was running everywhere in confusion and panic. When I wasn't looking, someone ran into me, knocking me over. I fell to the ground and grunted as I landed on the ground. I sat up and shook my head. When I looked up, I saw a man in a red coat running towards me.

I woke up. I looked around the room. I was still inside. Meryl and Millie were still sleeping. I rested my head in my hand and sighed. I let out a silent groan as I stood up. I checked under my coat. My gun was still there. I had just remembered that I didn't replace the bullet I fired. I reached for a bullet on one of four belts that I wore. Two were around my hip and two other were wrapped around my torso, each on a shoulder and extending to the parallel hip. Each belt held at least fifty bullets. As soon as I replaced the bullet, I grabbed one of the two hundred bullets in my numerous pockets and replaced the one in my belt.

"My gun is my obsession," I muttered. "The bullets are the belts."

I turned around and opened the door. I looked around to see if anyone was walking around the hall. It was empty. I grinned. I walked out of the room and into the hall. I slowly walked down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I looked at the innkeeper. He was sleeping and snoring loudly. His feet were extended onto the desk as he leaned back. I walked up to him.

"Old man, wake up."

He quickly sat up. He looked at me for a couple seconds. He then let out a loud yawn. He stared at me again. I was giving him a serious look.

"What do you need now?" He asked me.

"I need to know where a shooting range is that has some competitions."

"If you want the best prize, you need to wait an hour for the competition that will be at the "Smokin' Pistol" which is about ten minutes north of this inn."

"Thanks."

I walked out of the inn and headed north. It was pitch black, but I could see a lot of things. I continuously looked around to make sure I wouldn't see anything... or _anyone_. I couldn't help but feel like I was being followed. I learned to trust my instincts. I had my hand on my pistol's handle. I was gonna get ready for anything. When I arrived at the place, I looked around again. No one was around. I grinned. I opened the doors and headed in.

When I got inside, I looked at the competition. I could see some people that looked like novices compared to me. I hoped that there were some challenging people. I let out a sigh of irritation. I walked up to the signup sheet and signed my name on the sheet. I walked up to a wall corner and leaned on it. I was waiting patiently. Sometime before the competition, something caught my eye. I noticed someone walking off. He was wearing a red coat and had blonde hair. I grinned. I quickly followed him around the building. When he went into a room, I followed him in. He grabbed some food and started to eat slowly.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the almighty Vash."

I aimed my gun at him. I readied the pistol and pulled back the hammer. The man flinched. He slowly turned around. I looked at his face. It was youthful and seemed somewhat inexperienced. I sighed and put my gun back.

"What the hell are you trying to do, scare me to death?" The man asked. "And what kind of a stupid person would think that _I'm _Vash?"

"Someone who knows that he wears that kind of clothing."

I walked out of the room. He growled loudly. I chuckled quietly as I entered the waiting room and continued to lean against the corner I previously waited at. Several minutes later, they called us in. They asked everyone when they wanted to go. I optioned to go last. After that was done, I was finally able to get a good look at the room. It wasn't really big. Still, it had the necessities. As soon as that was all over with, everyone was firing away at the targets. Booms and bangs echoed in the room. It didn't bother me though. All I did while I was waiting was sitting down on a chair. When I did that, nothing seemed to reach me. When the guns went silent, reality slowly crept back into my mind. I looked around for a bit as I stood up. I then walked up to the man who had the money.

"How much is the par for shooting all six targets?" I asked.

"One point twenty five seconds. Why do you want to know?"

"I want to see if I can break that. Why else would I want to know?"

"I doubt you'd be able to break it. That was a record set by someone who claimed to be Vash the Stampede himself. I'll believe it."

"Vash, huh?" I asked with a grin. "Now I really want to do this. How 'bout this? If I beat the par, I get $$5,000. If I beat the par _and_ get a bulls eye on each target, I get _$$10,000_."

"And what if you don't beat the par?"

"I'll pay you $$20,000."

"Deal," the man replied with a grin.

I continued to grin. I looked above me. There was a sign that would display my time. I knew what the time would say. I turned around walked towards the center of the room. I let my hand drift to my side. I waited for the sound of the man to say go. I knew he wouldn't. I could tell he was a cheapskate. It didn't matter. I could still do this. I would show them. I did. As soon as I heard a beep, I grabbed my gun and fired at the targets. Everyone stared at me. They soon turned their heads and stared at the targets. In each of the targets, there was hole right in the center of each one. I had an evil grin on my face.

I turned my head. I looked at the electric sign. I shot all the targets in about one second. I changed my view to the manager. He stared at me with disbelief. I stuck my hand out and motioned for him to put the money in my hand. He gave me an evil look. He walked off for a second. He went into the previous room. I could hear some rummaging. About a minute later, he popped back in. He put the money in my hand. I stared at it with content. I had a big smile on my face as I walked off. I headed out the door. Before I left, I heard a gun cock. I turned around to face the manager. He had a gun in his hand, aiming it at my head. I stared at him with confusion.

"Are you gonna try to make me give you the money back?" I asked.

"Very funny Mr. Stampede."

"What?" I said, still in confusion. "You think I'm him?"

"Only the humanoid typhoon could pull off a trick like that! You even beat a seemingly impossible par! How do you explain that?"

"I call it practice and talent you crazy loon," I replied giving him an evil look. "I'm a bounty hunter who needs the cash, so I have to practice."

"Yeah right. Now enough with the bull crap. You can come along quietly or..."

"Or what?" I asked with an evil grin. "You're gonna try and shoot me?"

"No," A voice said. "_We're_ gonna try and shoot you."

I looked a little bit to the left. There were thirty people behind the man, all with their guns drawn. I lowered my sunglasses for a brief moment. I just as quickly readjusted them. I looked around for a way to distract them. I noticed a beam that held the roof up. I grinned evilly. I drew my gun at lightning speed and fired at the roof. There was a loud CLICK. I looked at my gun. It was empty.

"Gah! I forgot to reload!"

I quickly turned around and ran out the door. Everyone fired at me. I barely dodged the bullets. I ran even faster. Soon, people were chasing after me. As they did this, I reloaded my gun. I quickly put the bullets inside. I didn't bother fiddling with my pockets to grab some replacement bullets. I just wanted to run.

"Almost there," I said. "Just a little..."

I couldn't finish the sentence. I was soon shot in my left arm. I yelled in pain. I groaned as I grabbed my arm. Blood oozed out from the wound. Apparently a bullet was stuck in a bone. I ignored this and picked up speed. I was still being shot at. I wondered when I would get to the inn when I spotted it. I grinned. I ran as fast as I could. The innkeeper was stared at me as I got closer.

"Close the doors and lock them!" I shouted. "I'm being chased by a freakin' mob!"

When I got in, the man slammed the doors shut and locked the door. I just ran up the stairs. I opened the door and slammed it behind me. When I turned around, I saw Meryl in her bra and skivvies. Her hair looked wet along with some other parts of her body. When she saw me, she had a flustered look. She yelled out in anger. I yelped in surprise and Millie quickly sat up from the bed she was in.

"I can't believe your still at it!" She shouted. "You better get out before I pound you in!"

"Just shut up and put your clothes on!" I said firmly, throwing her clothes she wore before. "They want to shoot me down because of a misunderstanding."

"I don't know why they shouldn't!" She said angrily as she got dressed.

"What exactly happened," Millie asked as she got up and grabbed her gun.

"They think I'm Vash!"

"Well why would they think your Vash? He has blonde and black hair, a red coat, and..."

"I know what he looks like!" I shouted. "Just get out of here!"

There was a pounding on the door. We all turned our heads to face the door. Apparently they got in quicker than I thought. I looked at the window. It looked like the only exit. I headed for it. Millie and Meryl quickly followed. I turned my head to look behind me.

"Millie, shoot the chunk of floor that's right under the door," I said quietly.

"Right!"

She took her behemoth of a gun from under her coat and aimed it at the floor. She fired the bullets and holes appeared in the floor. Soon, it started to give way. I heard several people shout in surprise. I grinned. I looked straight ahead of me once again and jumped out the window. I landed on my feet and quickly stood up. Millie swiftly jumped to the ground. When she landed, she faltered a little bit and let out a loud thud. I looked at Meryl. She seemed hesitant. She finally jumped after a couple of seconds. I caught her in my arms. When I did, I groaned in pain. I quickly set her down and grabbed my arm.

"Are you okay?" Meryl asked with concern.

"I'm fine. Now lets go!"

We quickly ran off. When we passed the bar, Meryl and Millie ran to the side of it. I skidded to a halt so I could face them. The mob was getting closer. I quickly glanced at them. I soon changed my view towards them.

"What are you doing?" I said loudly. "Come on!"

"We're getting something!" Millie shouted.

"Just go! They'll only chase you so will be fine!" Meryl said.

"Thanks for the concern," I said sarcastically.

I turned around and started to run out of the town. Seconds later, I saw Meryl and Millie quickly catching up to me. They were riding Thomas's. I laughed with relief. However, I soon stopped when they passed by me. I stopped in shock. I forgot that I was being chased. The only thing that was on my mind was that I just got stabbed in the back.

"What are you doing?" I shouted at them. "Why are you leaving me behind? I'm injured for Christ's sake! You traitorous back stabbers!"

Bullets soon flew passed me. I yelled in shock. I soon ran after Meryl and Millie. As I was running, I turned my head to view the mob. They were still chasing us. I raised my head to stare at the town's huge entrance sign. I aimed my gun at where the poles held it up and fired twice. I could here faint sounds of impact along with the people yelling. Soon, the sign fell over. The people were running back to avoid being crushed. I grinned. I faced forward again and hightailed it. About two minutes later, Meryl and Millie came riding towards me. I laughed with relief. I slowed down as they came closer. I noticed that Meryl had an irritated look. Millie looked disappointed. I stared at them with curious looks.

"What's wrong with you two?"

"So we're back stabbers, are we?" Meryl asked.

"You didn't have to say that," Millie said.

"You two rode off!" I shouted in frustration. "How was I supposed to know you would come back to help me?"

"We help people. It's our job. Besides, it seems that it would be best to find Vash with you in case anything were to happen."

"Really. Well whatever. I need to get out of here. Now will you give me a ride?"

"I don't know," Meryl said with an evil grin. "Do you think you can apologize and mean it? If you can, maybe we'll go slow for you so you won't get lost in this desert."

"Are you sure that would be a good idea, ma'am?"

"Of course! After all, we deserve an apology! And we're going to get it! Unless, of course, you want to stay behind."

I growled. I didn't want to apologize. She _didn't_ deserve it. She left me behind, after all. In fact, she should have apologized to me! Still, desperate times called for desperate measures. I let out another growl. I bowed my head and crossed my arms.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"What was that?" Meryl asked.

"I'm sorry," I said louder.

"Can you say that one more time?"

"I'm sorry,' I said firmly.

"I still can't hear you!" She said.

"Fine. I... I... I will pay you each $1,000 if you will just stop this and give me a ride. Okay?"

"What? You have to be kidding me! You'd rather shell out $$2,000 than say sorry out loud?"

"Yep."

"Hmmm. Fine. I guess we can do that. You can pay us when we get to the next town."

"Thanks."

I hopped on the Thomas that Meryl was riding. I put my right hand around her hip and rested my head on her shoulder. She groaned nervously. I would have laughed, but I didn't want to. I would only get a little bit of sleep since day was a couple of hours off, my left arm was numb because of the bullet, and I nearly lost my pride. I just wanted to rest.

"I hope this won't happen in the next town," Millie said. "This was stressful enough!"

"I'm pretty sure it won't," Meryl said. "It only will if the new Humanoid Typhoon here won't get trigger happy and self-centered again.

I just grunted. My eyes slowly shut as I began to fell asleep again. I slept rather uncomfortably. I had that dream again. There was something unusually comfortable about the sleep that night, but I couldn't put my finger on it until the next day.


	2. The Hidden Mine and the Ex Criminal

**Chapter 2: The Hidden Mine and the Former Criminal**

I slowly woke up. It was early in the morning. I could tell because the sun was still rising. My head was still on Meryl's shoulder. My hand was holding something soft. I squeezed it gently a couple of times. I slowly rose my head off of Meryl's shoulder. She turned her head to look at me. She had an evil look.

"So your finally awake."

"Yeah. Why do you look so POed?"

Her elbow flew right into my face. I grunted and fell to the desert ground and landed with a hard thud. I yelled out in pain. I didn't know what hurt more right there: my shoulder, my face, or my pride. It didn't matter. I was to busy clenching my face and getting up on my feet. I gave her an angered look.

"What the hell did you do that for?" I shouted. "Even I can feel pain! Besides, I didn't do anything to you!"

"Yes you did," she said, getting off the Thomas. "Can you guess where your hand was?"

It instantly hit me. I slapped my face in embarrassment. I let out a groan. The reason I had slept so peacefully last night was because my hand was apparently on her breast. I soon let out a chuckle. I couldn't really believe I did that. Even I don't go that far. Oh well. At least some good came out of it (for me anyway).

"Whoops," I said quietly. "I guess I'll have to be more careful next time."

"You better," She replied. "Next time I'll shoot you. You got that?"

I nodded. I walked up to the Thomas and started to get back on. However, Meryl put her hand right in front of my face. She crossed her arms and gave me an evil look. I blinked twice. I wondered what she wanted now?"

"Do you want me to say I'm sorry again?"

"Oh no. You're not riding with us for the rest of the trip to the city. You're gonna have to run it. If you can't, tough."

"What?" I shouted. "You can't do this to me! You need me with you!"

"How do you know? You asked us if we wanted to join, not the other way around."

I started to protest, but I fell silent. I crossed my arms and stared at her. She really was a firecracker. Hell, she was a bomb to be more honest. This was one of the reasons I didn't want to try to talk her out of it. I knew if I said the wrong thing, she really _would_ kill me. I leaned to the left and looked ahead of me. The city was a couple of miles off. I straightened my body and looked at Meryl.

"You really do hate me, don't you?"

"You bet," she replied.

"Then why did you agree to accompany him, ma'am?" Millie asked.

"Because you basically forced me to!" Meryl said firmly. "Now let's just get going!"

She snapped the reigns and the Thomas sped off. Millie soon followed her. I growled loudly as I took off after them. I pumped my arms to gain momentum and speed. Sand occasionally flew into my face because of the Thomas's. I put my sunglasses back on, but they didn't help too much. Dirt still got in my eyes. I growled loudly as I continuously rubbed the dirt out of my eyes. I was about to stop and call it quits when I noticed that the town was only one hundred yarz off. I started to laugh with relief. I picked up speed. I was running so fast, I started to pass up Meryl and Millie. They stared at me in disbelief as I started to run faster. I grinned as I got closer. I was about twenty yarz off when my leg fell through something. I grunted. I turned around to see what I had snagged. I hadn't snagged anything. There was a small hole in the ground. I gave it a puzzled look. Meryl and Millie caught up to me and stopped abruptly. They jumped off of their thomas's to examine the hole. As they walked up to me. I quickly glanced at them then looked at the hole again.

"That's rather peculiar," Millie said. "I wonder if anything is down there."

"I'm not sure," Meryl replied. "I am a little curious. Do you think we should check it out?"

"I don't know," I replied. "There's probably something down there, but then again..."

I heard guns cocking behind us. Meryl let out a surprised yelp. I drew my gun and spun around. I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the people. They looked like police officers. Meryl and Millie slowly turned around as I continued to stare at the men. They looked they hadn't shot anything for weeks. I could have shot them, but than I would have been in more trouble.

"Put down your guns, and hold your hands in the air" One of them said.

I was hesitant at first. I finally holstered the gun after several seconds. However, I didn't raise my hands. I just stared at the officers. The one that spoke slowly walked up towards me. He was wearing casual shoes with blue jeans, and a long sleeve shirt. He had short brown hair and a goatee that matched. He reminded me of someone. I couldn't think of who though.

"State your name and business," The man said.

"I'm Meryl. This is Millie. We're part of the the Bernar..."

"I didn't ask you," The man said, not letting his gaze off of me.

"I'm "Hurricane" Harry Johnson. I'm a bounty hunter who's searching for Vash the Stampede on personal business. That good enough for you?"

He stared at me with an incredulous look. He took a couple steps forward. He stared at me for a while. He then backed up. He stroked his chin as a grin appeared on his face. He started to chuckle. I wondered what was so amusing to him.

"I don't believe it. _The _Hurricane Harry! I never thought that you'd show up in our town!"

"Me neither," I muttered.

"I'm the sheriff of this town. I tend to get a little edgy when it comes to outsiders. I don't know if they're thieves or not. So tell me, what are you doing here?"

"I'll tell you as soon as we get in town... and you put that gun down."

Apparently, the man forgot that he was still aiming his gun at me. He quickly put the gun back in his holster. I let my hands drop to my side. I stared at him for a while. He was so familiar. If I just had a picture, or something, I'd remember.

"Follow me," The man said. "I bet you need something to eat. Am I right?"

A small grin appeared on my face. I hadn't eaten for a while. Anything would have been good at the time. The man faced the officers and told them move out. They quickly ran off towards the town. The man soon walked off. I quickly went off after him with Meryl and Millie quickly following me. I didn't let my eyes off of the man. His name... it was on the tip of my tongue. However, my thoughts were interrupted when Meryl walked up next to me.

"Why do you keep on staring at him?"

"Haven't you seen his face before?" I asked.

Meryl took another look at the man. She had a curious look on her face. I beginning to think this guy was a public figure before. Must have been a performer or something. Or maybe... he was a bandit. If that was the case, why didn't he shoot me down earlier? It didn't matter now. I was just wanted to relax after what happened the day before hand.

"So where ya from?" The man asked me.

"I'm still trying to find that out myself. I've traveling for so long, I don't know where I come from let alone where I'm gonna settle down."

"You'd settle anywhere with an attractive woman, am I right?" Meryl asked me.

"Are you asking me out or something?" I replied, grinning evilly.

"No! I'd never ask you out!"

I chuckled quietly. I put my around and pulled her closer to me. She growled loudly and pushed me to the side. I just stared at her and let out a sigh. I tried at least. Than again, I tried a lot. Why this kind of thing still disappoints me I don't know.

"You really try too hard Mr. Harry!" Millie said cheerfully. "If you're trying to get together with miss Meryl, you need to find out what she likes first!"

"Don't encourage him Millie! He shouldn't be together with _any _woman!"

"I think everyone should be together with someone," Millie replied.

"Stop encouraging him! I don't want him to keep grabbing me!"

"Sorry, ma'am."

I chuckled. I looked at the man. He had a toothy grin. I grinned back. He turned his head and looked ahead once again. I looked at Millie. She glanced at me. I had a big smile on my face. I mouthed thank you. She smiled brightly and nodded. I turned my head to face Meryl. She gave me an evil look. I grinned and chuckled nervously. I quickly looked away.

"So where are we going, anyway?" Millie asked the man.

"We're going to my home. It's the least I can do since I almost shot you people down."

"Oh! That's so kind of you!" She said cheerfully.

"Yeah. I try to be kind when I can."

I stared at the man again. I needed to know his name. I would not rest until I found it out. Luckily for me, that wouldn't be necessary. I would find it out soon enough. Soon enough, we arrived at town. I looked around the town. Company buildings were everywhere. There were a lot of people who wore suits walking around town. There were barely any homes... or normal people walking in the streets for that matter. Everywhere I looked, it was mostly just businesses, inns, and rich snobs.

"That's what the business industry has done to the world today," The man said. "The companies take over the land, squeeze out our money, and look for any chance to kick us off the land. We need to do something about this. Odds are we won't be able to."

"So there's nothing you can do about it?" Meryl asked.

"Only thing we can do is try to find some quick cash. There were rumors floating around that there was a mine around here. There's supposedly enough materials that if you cash it all in, you would have about a quarter of the bounty of the Humanoid Typhoon."

I stared at him. I was surprised he would say something like that. A lot of people don't speak their minds. It didn't matter. Usually a man's thoughts couldn't change a thing. Well, that's in my opinion anyway.

"So how much farther till we get to your home?" Meryl asked.

"Luckily for you it's only a couple minutes more."

He was right. We arrived at his home in about two or three minutes. When we arrived, I examined the home. It was small, but it was well kept. The exterior looked as if it was freshly painted, there were decorations hanging around it, and there was a thomas stall on the side. You would expect this place to be cheap. Most of the homes looked like that. Why would anyone struggle in trying to keep their homes?

"Come on in," the man said. "My wife is making dinner. Just don't do too much staring."

"Why would you say that?" I asked.

"You'll see," The man said with a grin.

The man opened the door and walked inside. We followed him inside. Meryl and Millie looked around with surprised looks on their faces. I was a little surprised too. It had a rustic charm to it. There were style tables, chairs, carpeting... you name it. I looked at the man again. He was standing next to a woman. He whispered something into her ear. She turned to face us. I stared in shock. She was absolutely gorgeous. She had long blonde hair, fine body, green eyes, and and clothes you would find a female chef wearing.

"So she's a cook," I muttered. "Lucky SOB. He got two things for the price of one."

"Hello. I'm Marianne. I'm Tobias' wife."

Tobias. I was starting to remember the name. It was a robber. I was sure of it. I just couldn't think of where (and when) he was a robber. I shook the image from my mind. I walked up to the woman and smiled. I stuck out my hand.

"Hello ma'am. My name's Harry Johnson. Nice to meet you."

She smiled brightly. She grabbed my hand and shook it lightly. I chuckled quietly. As soon as she was done, I gave a slight bow. I when I stood up straight, I quickly turned around and walked towards Meryl and Millie. I looked at Meryl. She had a shocked look on her face.

"Why didn't you "bother" her?" Meryl asked in a quiet but irritable tone.

"I only "bother" women who aren't in a relationship."

"Well how do you know I'm not in a relationship?" Meryl asked coldly.

"For one thing, you seem to get mad rather easily when talking to a guy (probably because of some crack he would make). Second, most men would probably too scared to even look at you."

Meryl gave me a cold and evil look. She growled quietly as she crossed her arms. I chuckled as I gave her an evil grin. Millie switched her gaze between the two of us. She had a confused look on her face.

"You said the last time you were with another man was five years ago."

"Millie!" Meryl shouted. "Why did you say that?!"

Tobias came into the room. He had a grin on his face. He chuckled quietly.

"Is something the matter?"

"Yeah. I'm doomed to be with this man right here."

She groaned quietly as she rubbed her head. I laughed quietly. Tobias also started to laugh. Meryl gave us an evil look. She growled quietly. I stopped laughing. That look was starting to send a shiver down my spine. I turned around to face Tobias. He still had that grin on his face.

"So how long till lunch will be ready?" I asked.

"Actually, it _is_ ready," Tobias replied.

"Hooray!" Millie said with a big smile. "We can finally eat! I was starving!"

I looked at Millie and chuckled. Meryl looked at her and sighed. Apparently she was already having a bad day. She needed to learn to take pressure. My thoughts were soon interrupted as a scent filled my nose. I turned my head to see where it was coming from. I saw plates and platters on the table with an abundance a food. I stared at the food with wide eyes.

"Alleluia!" I said loudly. "This is an all-you-can-eat buffet!"

I started to drool. Soon, I felt a quick blow to the back of my head. I clenched my head and groaned in pain. I turned my head to face Meryl. Her hand was clenched in a tight fist. She had an evil look on her face.

"You really need to control yourself," she said.

"Is this why no one wants to date you?" I muttered.

"Well, it seems that your even hungrier than I thought," Marianne said.

Meryl and I turned our heads to look at the table. Millie was already eating what she could. I looked at Meryl and gave her an evil look. She started to sweat.

"You were saying?" I said coldly.

She just stared at me for a couple seconds. She let out a sigh as she walked towards the table. I followed her. We both pulled out a chair, sat down, and started eating. I ate rather slowly, but Millie was just pigging out. I stared at her with disbelief. I have never seen a person like her for a while. It scared me to be honest.

"Isn't this food great?" Millie said with a mouth full of food. "I haven't had like this in so long! Have you?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," I replied with a grin.

"You really like to joke around, don't you?" Millie said after swallowing the food.

While she said that, she slapped me in the back. Unfortunately, I was eating something when she did that. WHen her hand made contact, food became lodged in my throat. I gasped. I grabbed my throat as I tried to get it down. I tried to breathe, but I couldn't.

"Are you okay?" Millie asked me.

After several seconds, I swallowed the food. I breathed heavily as I gasped for air. My breathing slowed down a little as I sat upright. I let out a quiet groan. I looked at Millie. By the look on her face, I could tell that she _couldn't_ tell that I was choking.

"Don't do that next time," I muttered.

"Are you all right there Harry?" Tobias asked.

"Get back to me on that one. Uh, I never got you last name."

"Oh. It's Harrison."

"Ah. Thank you. Can I talk to you in private?"

"Uh... sure. Marianne, I'll be right back."

"Okay. But hurry. I don't think you'd like my food cold."

"Of course."

He stood up and headed towards the door. I quickly stood up and followed him. We went outside. The sun was hanging high in the sky. Shadows covered the land where we stood. We both looked left and right, making sure no one was watching us. I then looked at Tobias. He was giving me the same look that I was giving him. I chuckled.

"Tobias Harrison. Infamous robber and kidnapper. Held up fifty banks and made off with over $$250,000. Kidnapped only five people but made off with over $$750,000. Had a bounty of $$1,000,000 on his head until he stopped for a mysterious reason approximately seven years ago. After three years, it was decided that he would no longer be hunted down."

"Hmmm. It seems that you know your stuff kid. I'm impressed.

"I have to know this stuff. I'm a bounty hunter."

"So what are you gonna do now?" He asked with a grin. "Are you gonna shoot me?"

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "There's no point in doing so. For one thing, I won't get anything out of it. Besides, you're living a different lifestyle. For all I know, you really are the sheriff for this town.

"Yeah. I am. Heh. Good thing too. I'm the only one here that actually stands up for the rest of the town. Without me, this place would have been one huge corporation a long time ago."

I stared at the man. He was still grinning. I grinned too. I had a bad feeling though. It seemed like trouble was growing. It started to bug me. I looked around again to make sure no one was around. The streets were empty. I faced Tobias again. He was heading inside. I quickly followed him. When we got inside, I shut the door behind me. We went back to the table and started to eat again. Meryl and Millie just looked at me.

"What went on out there?" Meryl asked me.

"Oh! Nothing went on out there!" I said with a big smile. "We were just having a little chat!"

"What were you talking about?" Millie asked me.

"Yes," Marianne said. "What were you two talking about out there, Tobias?"

"Nothing important," Tobias replied. "He was just asking me about the town."

"Oh. I see."

We continued to eat. However, we stayed silent for the rest of time that we ate. I couldn't help but feel like someone was following me. I wanted to ignore the feeling, but I learned to trust my instincts. It saved my life on more than one occasion. As soon as we were done, I quickly started to leave the house.

"Hey!" Meryl said loudly. "Where are _you_ going?"

"I'm going to get a drink. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Yeah! We're here on business! We're not here for fun!"

"Fine then. I'll buy you a drink and we can talk business. How does that sound?"

"You just don't quit, do you?" Meryl replied coldly.

"I want to come!" Millie said cheerfully.

"NO!" Meryl shouted. "You'll end up getting drunk at the worst time!"

"Man," I replied. "You really are uptight. I'm sure a drink or two will be fine. Besides, the more the merrier. Let's go!"

Millie smiled and chuckled. I headed for the door. Millie quickly followed me. I put my hand on the knob, but I stopped. I turned around and faced Marianne and Tobias. I bowed and gave them my thanks. After that, Millie and I headed for the saloon. I had to have lost track of time. It was already three o'clock. I didn't care. I was still gonna have myself a time. I looked at Millie. She had a big smile on her face.

"So how long have you been in... your field of work?"

"Oh, about a few years. Meryl's been around about as long as I have."

"I see. Uh... has she always acted the way she does?"

"Yep! She stresses out pretty easily!"

"That easily seems like an understatement for her. It sounds more like her personality."

She chuckled quietly. I chuckled too. I turned my head and looked straight ahead. We neared the saloon. I pushed the door open and headed towards the bar. I pulled the seat back and sat down on. Millie soon sat down next to me. I looked at her and gave her a small grin. She gave me that big smile she almost always had. The bartender looked at both of us. He grunted as he cleaned a glass.

"So what'll it be?"

"Give me the best thing you got!" I said cheerfully.

"Me too!" Millie said.

"Huh. So you too are the rich types, huh?"

"You could say that!" I said with a big smile. "I got more than $$23,000!"

"What?! How could you have that much?!"

"He's the best bounty hunter there is!" Millie said loudly. "He's as good as Mr. Vash!"

"You mean Vash the Stampede?!" He said with a shocked expression.

"Hell yeah!" I said with a big smile.

"Now enough with the chit chat! Give us the best you have!"

He groaned quietly. He reached back and grabbed a couple of bottles. He gave them to us. I looked at her. We knocked the bottles together and took a swig. I exhaled loudly and had a big smile. I looked at Millie. Even _her_ smile seemed larger than normal. I just laughed. We took another swig.

"This stuff is the finest!" I yelled out. "Keep 'em coming !"

"This stuff is so good!" Millie said. "Please give us some more!"

The bartender sighed. He turned around, grabbed more bottles and handed them to us. This seemed to go on for about an hour or two. We laughed loudly as everyone seemed to get in the mood for now. Once again, I was buying for everyone in the bar. It was starting to become a habit. It didn't matter though. I was having to much fun to even care about it.

"This is so great!" Millie said with slurred speech. "I'm so glad you let me come!"

"C'mon!" I said cheerfully. "What are friends for? Why wouldn't I let you come? Hey, barkeep! Did I tell you to stop giving those things to us?"

He grumbled. He grabbed more bottles and gave them to us. I laughed loudly. Millie took another swig. To be honest, she chugged he whole thing down. She smiled brightly. Her face was red. I was so drunk that seeing her face like that made me laugh again. I took the bottle and started to drink again. I leaned back. In fact, I leaned so far back, I fell off of the stool and landed on the ground. I yelped as I made contact. I groaned as I sat up.

"Ow. That hurt."

"Are you okay Mr. Harry?" Millie said with an even more slurred speech.

I nodded as I began to stand up. I shook my head. When I looked at Millie, I smiled like an idiot. I walked up to the barkeep. I gave him a goofy grin. He gave me a confused look. He quickly looked away as he grabbed the bottles. Apparently, he thought I was going to make trouble. I wasn't though.

"Tell me, where's the juke box?" I asked with a slight slur.

"Huh? It's in the corner back there."

"All right! Time to get some music on to lighten the mood!"

"When do you mean lighten?" The bartender shouted. "The lot of you are as drunk as you can get! How can the mood get any better?"

"See?" I said drunkenly. "That's what I'm talkin' about! You're too high stung! Relax!"

I laughed loudly as I headed towards the juke box. I deposited some coins and hit in some numbers. Some light rock came on. I grinned. It was one of the better songs. I got on one of the tables and hollered at everyone.

"C'mon people! Find a partner and get with the beat!"

I laughed loudly again as I fell off of the table. I yelled out as I fell off. I groaned in pain. I still wasn't drunk enough to be numb to pain. I growled in irritation. I quickly got up. I looked at everyone. They stared at me. I grinned. and threw up my arms.

"I'm not done partying yet!"

They all let out a loud cheer. I laughed loudly. I just got back on the table and started doing some jig. Everyone cheered louder. I just laughed loudly. After a while, I went over to Millie. I gave her a big grin.

"How 'bout you join me!"

"I'd love to!" She said with slurred speech. "Dancing is so fun!"

She got on the table with me and started to do the jig to. Everyone shouted with drunken cheers and laughter. We just laughed throughout the whole thing. After a while, we finally stopped. Millie collapsed during the thing. Apparently she had too much to drink. After that, I helped her up, paid the bartender, and headed out. The bill wasn't too pleasing. I had to pay the man $$2,000. Still, even then we were still singing. We had our arms around each other and drank the bottles in our hand occasionally.

"Now that was a day I wish we could live everyday!" I shouted.

"Maybe if you check out that mine you found, we would be able to do that!" Millie said with slurred speech. "We would be so happy!"

"We don't know if it's a mine yet," I said drunkenly, pointing at her. "But let's just hope so. We'd be rich!"

We laughed even louder than before. We walked down the streets and continued to sing some nonsense song. Along the way back to Tobias' home, we were approached by some people. They were gruff looking men, both wearing black coats and hats. The clothes were so dark that they looked like they were part of the night. Millie and I stared at them.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked.

"We're just some people who wanted to ask you something," One of them said.

"Uh... is it directions or... time?" I said hesitantly.

"It's not that. We heard you say something earlier. It was something about a mine."

"Oh yeah!" Millie shouted. "We found what looked like a mine out in the desert! I just hope there's a lot stuff that's worth a lot! I could buy anything!"

"Er... right," The second man. "You see, there's a problem about that. We can't let anyone talk about that mine."

He took out a gun and aimed it at us. I just stared at it. I started to chuckle. The man stared at us with disbelief. Millie and I took out our guns and aimed at them. They stared at us nervously. Millie and I had big smiles on our faces. I aimed it at them. I shook my head and stared at them.

"Well this isn't good," I said drunkenly. "I see four of you!"

"Huh?" One of the men said. "They're drunk!"

"We're not drunk!" Millie said. "We're just really happy right now!"

"Yep," The first man said. "They're drunk all right. This will make things all the easier."

I heard a loud click. I looked left and right. I couldn't tell which one did it. Soon, there were two gunshots. Millie and I shouted and I fell on my back. I heard two thuds. I rose my head to see what happened. The two men were on the ground. They were groaning loudly. I looked up. I saw Tobias with a smoking pistol in his hand. I chuckled as a huge smile grew on my face.

"Hey Tobias! Perfect timing!"

I laughed loudly and let my head fall down. I fell unconscious. Soon after that happened, a dream was reoccurring. It was that one I saw at the inn. I went through that same thing. This time, however, I saw more. The man, he got closer. Blonde hair waved left and right as he neared. He took out a gun and quickly rose it up. The barrel was pointed right at me.

"Wake up you lousy drunk!"

Something whacked me right across the face. I sat up at lightening speed. I yelled in pain as I grabbed the spot where I got hit. I looked around as I did this. I was in a dimly lit room, resting on a rather comfy bed. My gun was on a desk next to me along with my sunglasses. I groaned in pain. I looked at Meryl. She had an angered look on her face. I growled quietly. I knew that she was the one who did it.

"You didn't have to hit me," I said quietly, "I heard you the last time."

"You mean you finally heard me after about a half an hour?" She said loudly. "Well too bad! Right now I hope your head is hurting as bad as your face right now!"

"Nope. And luckily for me it won't."

"Huh?"

"It's a birth defect. You see, I have a third kidney. It helps filtrate a lot more of the alcohol out of my system. Now are you happy?"

She gave me a sickened stare. She shuddered in disgust. I looked at her for a little bit. A small grin appeared on my face. She gave me a puzzled look. I started to chuckle quietly. Her eyes narrowed as she realized what was going on.

"That was just pure dirty," she said angrily.

"Well, it looks like I got you. I got two like any normal person. I just have better tolerance. Hell, I drank twice as much as Millie."

"Twice as much?! But she's twice as drunk as you! How is that possible?!"

"I was being partially honest. I do have some defect. It makes my body better at rejecting "foreign" chemicals. You could poison me if you wanted to with a normal lethal dose and I'd still be alive. Although, I'm not sure how long I'd..."

"That's besides the point!" She shouted. "What _is_ important is that you and Millie nearly got shot. If I hadn't sent Tobias to check on you two, you'd be dead!"

"Oh," I said with a grin. "I thought you hated me. You must really like me a lot."

Her face went red. She growled loudly as she turned around and walked off. As she left, Tobias came in with a bowl in his hand. He looked at her as she stormed off. He looked at me when she left. We both grinned at each other. He walked up to me, handed me the bowl, walked over to a corner of the room, and sat down.

"I guess that means you sobered up?"

I nodded as I started to eat (or drink) the soup. It was nice and hot. It had a good taste too. I sighed as I put the bowl down. I rubbed my face a little more. That girl really had a good arm. How she could be scared of anything I wouldn't know. I rose my head to look at Tobias.

"So what the hell happened?" I asked. "And who were those people?"

"Those men? Those were some henchman by the looks of it. Probably one of those "security guards" for all I know."

"Security guards?" I asked in a puzzled tone.

"There's rumors in this town that there are people who are protecting the mine. Of course, they're doing it for themselves. If anyone else knows about it, they have a "meeting" them. I'm pretty sure you can guess what happens to them."

I nodded. I knew what happened to them. They were silenced. I shook my head. I couldn't help but feel sorry for those poor souls. I slowly stood up. I began to walk out of the room. However, I stopped. I looked at my gun. I just realized that I hadn't reloaded it since I left the last town. I took out two bullets from my pocket. I inserted the bullets into my gun. I looked at it and grinned. I turned my head to look behind me.

"Hey," Tobias said. "You going out there alone?"

"That depends," I said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You can join me and help me with this, or I can go alone. Either way, I'm getting the stuff down there. So, what's your answer?"

Tobias stared at me. He had a hesitant look on his face. After what seemed like a few minutes, he shook his head. He sat down and rested his head on his hand. He let out a quiet sigh as he rose his head to look at me again.

"Sorry. I can't do that. I need to look over Marianne. If I die, I'm just leaving her alone without protection. You understand, right?"

I nodded. I turned around and started to head out. As I walked out, I looked at Millie. She was asleep, but she still looked like she was drunk. I looked over at Meryl. She apparently fell asleep while she was sitting at the table. I grinned. I continued on my way. Right when I got out, I felt a cold chill. I tightened my coat and broke into a run. I needed to get to the mine. I wanted to get everything over with.

I headed out into the desert. I searched for the place where my foot got caught. After a while, I finally found it. How it didn't get covered up yet I had no idea. I examine the hole closely. It actually got bigger. I stuck my head inside. The place was dimly lit. So there _was_ something going on down here. I grinned with satisfaction I stood up slowly. Before I could jump down, I heard a click. I turned my head. There were three men The all had automatic weapons that were probably being aimed at my head.

"If I were you, I'd put the gun down on the ground," One of them said.

"Why should I? You'll just kill me anyway."

"You'll die even sooner if you don't do what I said."

I grinned. I reached for my gun. I held it high in the air. Soon, I let it fall to the ground. When I did that, everything around me seemed to slow down. The gun fell at such a slow pace. The men looked like they were paralyzed. I probably could have seen the wind at the speed everything was moving at. I stared at the gun as it slowly descended. Before it could hit the ground, I swiftly rolled to the left, grabbing my weapon in the process. During the roll, I fired three bullets. Each one hit one of the men. They yelled in pain and quickly fell to the ground. I stared at them as I stood up. The groaned loudly in pain. I just chuckled.

"Be glad I won't kill you unless you try that again."

I grabbed bullets from my pocket and inserted them into the gun's chambers. I put the gun back in my holster. I quickly walked up to the hole and jumped down. I landed quietly on the dirt below. I looked around. No one was around. I grinned. I adjusted my sunglasses and quietly walked down the path.

Apparently whoever was doing the mining spent a lot of time down here. They had lighting (although it was rather poor), buttresses, and tracks. It would have had to been someone pretty high up to pay for this. I continued to look around. I could tell I was gettin' closer to the where the main mining was going on. I could here drills and pick axes tearing off the dirt. Surely enough, I was right. There were hundreds of people working. They grunted as they ripped the dirt off of the walls of earth. There were pieces of heavy machinery nearby. I looked even more closely. Many of the people were normal citizens. They were stuck working down here? That explains why there were so few of them around.

"I'm pretty sure Tobias would be pretty interested in this," I muttered.

I turned around and looked directly into the barrel of a gun. I tilted my head slightly to the left. It was another guard. He had an evil look in his eyes. I just stared at him. His hand was shaking. EIther he was scared or he was crazy. I started to think it was both.

"Can I help you?" I asked sarcastically.

"Don't screw with me," The man. "Now listen up. The boss is offering you mercy. You either work down here like a dog, or I shoot you like a dog."

"So either way I compromise my dignity and make myself a dog. I think I'll take option C."

"Oh? And which would that be?"

I grabbed the gun by the barrel and pushed it upwards. The barrel of the rifle whacked him right in the face. He grunted as he staggered back. As soon as the rifle made contact with his face, my gun was drawn. I aimed it at his head. He stared ar me in shock. I had an evil grin.

"Option C is when you tell me what's going on and who's in charge of this. If you don't, I'll blow your head off. Right now, I am very trigger happy, so you better start talking."

"You son of a... fine. We're emptying out this mine. We're using the resources for a little "project" of ours. We're using citizens who find out about this place to find the materials in here. Cheap and effective."

"And who's the one your working for?"

"How the hell should I know? We being hired by some guy from a company called "Flames of Hell" or something like that."

I growled quietly. I knew who he was talking about. There are only a small amount of people who know about the group. They were a lot like the infamous Gung Ho Guns. However, these men are inhuman. They feel no pain, emotions (not even pleasure from killing someone), mercy, and supposedly not even souls. They only thrive off money, killing, and torture.

"Well, thanks for the info."

I bashed the butt of my gun on the top of his head. He grunted and fell to the ground. I stared at him for a couple seconds. I then turned around and headed to where everyone was. The noise grew louder. I started to hear the machines even more than before. The echo just rang in my ears. It started to irritate me.

"I think I'll take those out first," I muttered. "Nah. I'll screw with the guards first."

I drew my gun as I walked into the huge cave of workers. They all stared at me as I walked by them. I didn't take my gave off the six men that were positioned to watch over them. It took them a while for them to notice me. When they did see me, they aimed their guns at me.

"Who the hell are you?" One of them shouted.

"I'm the new guy who's in charge," I said, aiming my gun at them. "Here's the new orders. You let them go, along with a share of the materials, and get the hell out of here, or else I'm blowing this place up along with us."

"Hah! You got to be kidding me! I bet you barely have any ammo left! Besides! Even if you did shoot us down, the minute a bullet gets fired, men are gonna come pouring in here!"

I let out a sigh. With my other hand, I opened up my coat. Underneath it were the four belts that held fifty bullets each and ten grenades. They couldn't see it, but I had another gun. It was a special gun. It was the first one I used... back when I saw Vash.

"Now if I were you, I'd get the hell out of here. Give those workers a fair share while your at it. But do it quickly. You may not want to stick around for what I'm about to do."

"Grrr. Fine. Everyone! Move out!"

The soldiers ran off. I could here them cursing me under their breath. I grinned with satisfaction. I looked at the workers. They stared at me with disbelief. Apparently they could believe that I would do something this suicidal. I just chuckled. They started to grab what they had and ran off. I watched as they disappeared in the dim light. I stuck my hand under my jacket and grabbed a grenade I stuck my finger in the pin and got ready to pull. However, I stopped. I could hear footsteps. I turned around to see thirty men. They all had automatic guns.

"Crap!" I shouted.

Bullets flew everywhere. I dived out of the way behind a piece of machinery. I heard more gunshots. I could here people screaming. I flinched. The prisoner... that must have been them. I growled loudly. I peeked my head a bit to the side. More bullets were fired at me. I retracted my head. This was really starting to get me irritated. I realized that the grenade was still in my hand. I grinned. I threw it above my shoulder. I could here a thud and the soldiers screaming. One of the men approached it. He chuckled.

"That idiot!" He shouted. "He didn't pull the pin! He must be out of his mind!"

"Nope!" I said loudly. "My mind's in the right spot!"

I quickly dived to the left. Everything started to slow down again except for me. I aimed the gun at the grenade. The soldiers started to raise their guns, but it was too late. I pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced the outer shell of the grenade. It exploded on contact. The soldiers flew back, all of them screaming loudly. They either hit the earth or hit the dirt walls. Either way, after that happened, they were all yelling in pain. I quickly stood up. I had an evil smile.

"That's why you should never get together in one group," I said.

I quickly but quietly ran to where I heard the gunshots. I quickly took out another grenade. I pulled the pin for the grenade. I pulled my arm back and got ready to throw it. However, my arm stopped right when I was about to let go of it. I stared in complete shock. The workers were all there. I saw Meryl, Millie, and... Tobias. On the ground laid men armed with guns. They had guns in their hands. Meryl had Dillingers, Meryl had her huge stun gun, and Tobias had a six shooter. A grin appeared on my face. They were grinning to, but their smiles disappeared as they noticed my hand.

"Mr. Harry?" Millie began to ask. "What's that?"

I gave her a quizzical look. I looked at my hand. My eyes opened wide. The grenade was still in my hand. My face turned whiter. Luckily there wasn't any change in pressure in my grip. If there was and the handle moved, the timer would have started and it would have blown up, taking me along with it.

"Everyone... go now. I'll meet you in a sec."

"No way!" Meryl said. "We don't know what you'll do! It'd be safer if you were being watched! But... what were you going to do?"

I turned around to face the machinery. I growled. I pulled my arm back and let fly forward. The grenade soared towards the machinery. I quickly turned around and broke into a run.

"That!" I shouted. "Now run!"

Everyone was soon running behind me. I yelled out in frustration as I counted down the timer. I saw an exit. Five. We all got closer. Four. We started to hightail it. Three. I tripped as everyone ran passed me. Two. Meryl's hand game out of nowhere, quickly helping me. She gave me a determined look as we started to run again. One. Meryl picked up speed and I dived for my life. Zero.

There was a loud explosion. Flames started to follow our path. In my dive, I grabbed Meryl, pulling her down with me. She grunted as we both hit the ground. I covered her with my coat. The flames flew over us. She yelled out as the flames roared even louder than before. Soon, everything seemed still. I rose my head. The flames had dispersed. I stood up, grabbing Meryl by the arm to help her up. When she stood up, she started to dust herself off.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," She replied. "Thanks."

"I should be thanking you," I said. "If you hadn't helped me out, I probably could have been burnt up."

"What do you mean could have?" She asked.

"This stuff is flame retardant," I said. "This thing save my life plenty of times. Hopefully it saved yours."

She gave me a small grin. I gave her one in kind. However, it disappeared when I realized something. I looked up. There were different things falling from the sky. I looked closer. I realized... that they were the materials from the mine. When they fell to the ground, everyone cheered. Gold, silver, and other materials hit the ground. People grabbed whatever they could. All I could do was stare at them. They could finally get away from their troubles. They could finally build new homes. They could be free.

The next day, I stopped by Tobias' home. The girls were waiting at the entrance to the town. It was about noon when I arrived. I knocked on the door. I looked around. The streets were busy again. It made me feel good. I heard a click. I turned my head to find Marianne at the door. She had a surprised look on her face. She then gave me a small smile.

"Harry. It's good to see you again. Come in."

"Thanks."

I walked inside and looked around. It looked the same. It seems like the only thing that won't change. I chuckled. I went into the dining room and sat down on the wooden chair. I looked at Marianne as she was walking around the house. I looked at the door. It was still open. I guess that meant she felt safer. I looked at Marianne.

"Uh, do you know where Tobias is?"

"He went out. He should be back soon though."

"Oh. Thank you. I have a couple more questions."

"What are they?"

"First off, do you know why he stopped his, previous lifestyle?"

"He said he stopped... because of me. He said he never saw a more beautiful person. Funny thing, too. I was a hostage of his before."

"He took you as a hostage?"

"No. One of his old cronies did. When he saw me, he canceled the whole ransom. He let me go unharmed. In fact, there was another "incident" when I got in trouble. He came to rescue me. After that, his spree slowed down. He started to see me more and more. He was so infatuated with me, he stopped his crimes completely."

"I see. Amazing how a woman can change a man."

She gave me a small smile. I grinned back. When I said that, I started to think of Vash. I wondered why he stopped his crimes. Was it for the same reason? Or was it something else? I shook the thoughts from my mind.

"Uh, one more thing. Why did he decide to come to the mine?"

"I'm not sure. I guess it was because of what you did. You seemed to be the only one who actually rebelled. But I heard him say something like "I'm not protecting, I'm hiding," or something similar to that."

I chuckled. He really did care about her. Probably more than any person I've ever met. You don't see many people like that nowadays. This place needed more people like him. It would definitely make the town better. My thoughts were interrupted when Tobias entered. He gave me his toothy grin. I just gave him my normal one.

"Well, I thought you would come back here."

"I had too. I needed to ask you a few questions. Marianne did it for me, though."

"I see," He replied, followed by a chuckle. "Well, I was gonna find you, but you saved the work for me. What I wanted to do was thank you."

"Your welcome."

"I'm not done yet. I suppose you were wondering what I was doing. I cashed in the materials. We got about $$1,000,000,000 off of the materials. Now before I deposit this, I wanted to give you a tenth of the profits."

My eyes opened wide as he said that. $$100,000,000? That was too good to be true. I wanted to take that, but something was bothering me. I knew that they needed the money more than I did. I shook my head.

"Nah. That's a bit too much. I admit that would be good, but it's _too_ good. Besides, I'd waste all on booze and bullets. I'll take $$100,000 instead. Okay?"

"If that's what you want," He replied with a shrug.

He took out what looked like a check book. He wrote in the numbers quickly. He tore off the paper and handed it to me. I stared at it. $$100,000. What a lucky day. I grinned as I put it in my pocket. I thanked. I thanked Tobias and his wife. I gave them my goodbyes and headed out. I walked slowly through the town. The sun was beating down on me, but I didn't care. I was in a good mood. Firing off that gun and getting paid can make me happier than most people.

I looked straight ahead. I saw Meryl and Milly. They were on the Thomases. Milly was waving at me and Meryl had her arms crossed. However, she had a small grin on her face. I laughed. That was a face I didn't expect to see. I started to run towards them. When I got to them, I waved the check in my hand.

"Looks like we got pay day a bit early," I said.

"I bet you got a huge chunk of money," Meryl said, still grinning.

"We could retire!" Millie said excitedly. "We could live any way we want!"

"Nah. I got a small amount (compared to the original reward anyway). I could have gotten $$100,000,000. I took $$100,000 instead for their sake."

Meryl and Millie stared at me with shock for a while. Either they couldn't believe that I didn't take the money or the fact I did it for the people. Odds are it was both. A smile started to form on Meryl's face.

"I didn't know you were the generous type," She said.

I pushed my sunglasses up to cover my eyes. My face started to redden. That was a little embarrassing for her to say that. I turned around. Meryl chuckled. I could tell it was an evil one though. Millie looked between us.

"Are you thinking of going out with him now?"

Meryl turned her head to give her an evil look. Millie chuckled nervously. I didn't pay attention to that. What caught my attention was a bus. That would defiantely be better than riding a Thomas (except for one thing which I'm sure you can guess). It would be faster and more comfortable. I turned my head to face Meryl and Millie. I gave them a grin.

"Who's in favor of a road trip?"

Meryl leaned a bit to the left to look at the bus. She blinked a couple of times. She looked at the Thomases and than me again.

"But... we can't just leave these things here!"

"Sure we can," I said. "I can get you a new one when the times right."

"Cmon ma'am! It _would be_ better than riding these! It gets too uncomfortable. Besides! We can actually sleep on the bus."

"Oh fine," She said. "Let's go."

I grinned. I walked over to the bags and grabbed them. I hoisted them over my back as I slowly made my way to the bus. When I got to it, I threw everything on top. I didn't care if there was anything fragile in their. I needed to get the weight off.

"God! My back! What do you two carry?"

We took off about an hour later. The ride was a little bumpy, but at least we had cushions to sit on. Definately better than being on a saddle all day. The ride was better than I thought it would be. At night, I noticed Meryl was trying to stay awake. Her eyes were drooping, yet she was forcing them to stay open. She really was a dillligent one. She even tried to push fatigue to the side. She had to know when she needed to rest though.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Mm-hmm," she replied, slowly nodding her head.

"Just go to sleep. You need the rest. Hell, I'm the one who should stay awake. I'm basically the bodyguard here."

"I know, but I need to look out for Vash. He could be anywhere."

"I'll do that for ya. Now go to sleep."

She looked at me. She gave me small smile. She let her head droop on my shoulder. After a few seconds, she fell asleep right away. I looked at her and grinned. I undid my coat and covered her with the left half of it... along with my arm. I didn't do anything fishy though. I just let it hang to the side. For once, I felt that she had enough stress as it was.

"Sweet dreams," I muttered.

My head rested on top of hers. I shut my eyes. I was too tired to stay awake. I could hear Meryl snoring quietly. I didn't really care though. Just as long as I could get some sleep. Millie was looking at us. She chuckled quietly.

"They would be so good together!" She said.

I didn't hear what she said, though. I basically fell asleep right away. I got a good rest. However, it wasn't the best. I saw that dream again. I saw myself in the burning town again. I saw everything before. This time, I could see Vash as he got gloser. His gun rose. He fired his gun. I yelled out in shock right before he pulled the trigger. I didn't see any more than that, because I was soon woken up.


	3. Dark Past

The driver yelled out that we arrived. I opened my eyes. I looked around. It was early morning. I looked at Meryl. She was still out. I chuckled.

"Good morning," I said. "Hate to wake you up, but it's time to get up."

"No dad. Just give me a couple of more minutes."

I nudged her. She stirred. She slowly sat up. She looked around. My coat was hanging over her shoulder. My arm was still around her. Her face was a little red. She quickly pushed my arm off of her. She looked away.

"What were you doing?" She asked.

"I was keeping you warm. It was freezing last night. That, and you fell asleep on my shoulder. I was just helping you out as much as possible."

"I see. Well, thank you. Let's get off now. Millie! Are you awake yet?"

"Yes sempai," Millie said with a dull tone.

"Oh boy," I said. "Did you get any sleep at all?"

"Nope. Something kept me awake last night."

As soon as she said that, a fly came out of nowhere. It flew around Millie's head for a while. It soon landed on her nose. Almost instantaneously, her hand shot at her face. There was a loud slap followed by a yelp. I slapped my head. At least now I knew what kept her awake. I shook my head and let out a sigh. When I was done, I thought about the date. I thought about what happened ten years ago. It was around that time. I shook my head as I stood up. Meryl gave me a funny look. My face went sour rather quickly.

"Are you okay?" She asked me.

"Yeah. I just need more rest."

"Same here!" Millie said loudly. "I could sleep for the rest of the day!"

I ignored what she said. I walked out of the bus. I started to be as silent as mute. When I got out, I quickly go to the top and grabbed our luggage. It was strange. It felt significantly lighter. Seems that the days you carry the world upon your shoulders, everything else seems insignificant. At least I didn't live like this everyday.

"Mr. Harry!" Millie shouted out. "What are we going to do first? Go to an inn?"

I nodded. I still didn't say a word. I wanted to keep to myself. Nothing seemed to get through to me. I ignored everything around me... including the women. God I was really out of it. I just wanted to get inside. I just wanted some time alone. I sped up. I opened the door to the inn. I looked at the man at the counter. He was thin, had combed brown hair, looked middle aged, and wore glasses. Looked like the stereotypical kind of innkeeper. He gave me a long look.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

"Yeah. I need rooms for three people."

"Very well. Hmmm. We have one room with a single bed and one with two. Is that okay?"

I nodded. I turned my head to face Meryl and Millie. Meryl had a rather irritated look on her face. Millie just looked tired. I looked at the innkeeper again. He had three keys in his hand. He mentioned which room was which. I nodded. I grabbed them and turned around to face Meryl and Millie. I handed them the two keys.

"Harry?" Meryl asked. "Are you trying to ditch us or something? You kind of tried to run off (surprisingly, you did with all that luggage on your back). Are you okay?"

"I'm sure he's all right!" Millie said. "Mr. Harry's always all right!""

"As far as you know," I muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm just gonna turn in right now. I'm tired as hell. So tell you what, give me some time and I'll buy you some lunch and dinner later. Okay?"

"Yea!" Millie shouted. "Good food!"

I gave them a weak grin. I turned around and headed up the stairs. I looked around for the room. I found it with ease. I stuck the key into the slot, turned it, and opened the door. I looked around. There wasn't much. There was a bed and bathroom. There was also a table in the center of the room. I sighed. I got on the bed and sat there for a while. I then actually lied down. I stared up at the ceiling. This happened twelve years ago and I still couldn't ignore it.

"At least it can't happen to me again," I muttered.

I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep. I was tired and stressed out. As soon as I did, I started to wish I hadn't. I heard screaming. Following it were maniacal laughter, gunshots, and agonized sobbing. I woke up, quickly sitting up and looking around. I felt my face. I was sweating. I shook my head. I slowly stood up and headed for the bathroom.

I turned the faucet on. I cupped my hands and grabbed some water. I splashed it on face. It was hot in here for some reason. I took off my jacket, shirt, and belts. I ran my hands through my hair as I took in a deep breath. I exhaled loudly. I looked in the mirror. I saw a cold face. I moved my eyes away from it. Instead, I gazed at a scar that was on the left side of my chest. It was round and large. It could fit a .40 caliber bullet. After all, that's what made it. No. It wasn't the bullet that did it. It was the man who fired the bullet.

I started to see things again. I saw myself at a younger age. I was on the floor in a dimly lit room. I spit out blood. I turned my head to face who hit me. The man was six feet tall, had long black hair, brown eyes, a matching goatee, and a brown coat, and a gun in his hand.

"So you wanna be like Vash the Stampede, huh? You're saying you want to go around killing everyone around you? You want to kill innocent people?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" I shouted as I stood up. "I didn't mean it that way!"

"Let me guess. You meant that you want to be hunted down like him. You want to be shot at like him. You're saying that you want to have this happen to you?"

He raised his gun and fired at me. I screamed in pain. Not the younger me, the real me. I fell to the ground. I grabbed the scar. It felt like I was shot again. I looked at it. It was strange. It was even bleeding. I groaned in pain as I slowly stood up. When I looked at the door, I saw my father standing there. I stared in shock.

"Be careful of what you want. It may be too true."

He raised his gun at me. I growled loudly. I instantly drew my gun and fired at him. The boom filled the room. There were two screams. My eyes opened wide. I ran out of the room. I saw Meryl and Millie staring at the hole in shock. They were literally one, maybe two inches from the door. I looked at them. They changed their glance towards me.

"Mr. Harry?" Millie asked. "What's going on?"

"Yeah! Why the hell did you that cannon in here?!"

"I... I saw someone," I said hesitantly.

"Yeah right! Tell us the truth!"

"I am telling you the truth! I'm telling you I saw someone!"

"Do you two really need to fight over something like this?" Millie asked.

"Yes!" Meryl and I shouted.

I stared at Meryl. I gave a hard, cold look. She gave me an evil stare of her own. I turned around and headed back into the bathroom. I grabbed the shirt, belts of bullets and grenades, and my coat. I put them all on as quickly as I could. I quickly grabbed a bullet and inserted it into the gun's chamber. I then started to head out. Before I could, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head. It was Meryl. I brushed it off and continued along my way. I had an evil look on my face. I fixed the extended collar of my coat to help cover it up. I fixed my glasses to help too. I looked around at everyone that surrounded me. They probably didn't have a care in the world.

That was when I noticed someone. There was a tall person wearing a brown hooded cloak. The face was covered by the shadow of it. It looked as if he (or she hopefully) was staring at me. I grunted as I turned away. I walked around searching for a saloon. A few drinks would have been good right about now.

I found it after a while. When I opened the door to go inside, I looked at each individual person. Each looked cheerful and happy. I sighed heavily. I walked up to the bar, sat down, and rested my head on my hand. I had a feeling this was going to go on for a while. I looked up to see the barkeep. I grabbed some cash out of my pocket and stuck it out.

"Give me your strongest stuff," I said.

The man didn't say a word. He just grabbed the money from my hand, grabbed a bottle, and handed it to me. I snatched it from him and I started to chug it down. I exhaled loudly as I set the bottle down. The man grabbed the bottle and handed me another one. I chugged that one down as well. He kept on handing them to me until I drank about twenty bottles total.

"You call this your strongest stuff?" I said coldly. "I've had water that's stronger than this."

I slowly stood up and headed out of the bar. It was dusk. The sun was setting rather quickly. I tightened my coat as a cool breeze flew past me. It sent a heavy chill up my spine. I shook my head. I walked to the hotel rather slowly. I didn't know if I wanted to go back and see Meryl and Millie. They'd get on my case.

"Where's some action when you need it?"

I heard a scream. I looked around to see where it was coming from. I heard someone shouting something. I growled loudly. It was coming behind one of the buildings. I dashed to where it came from. When I got to where it was, I quickly drew my gun and aimed at a man who had a woman against the wall.

"Let go of her now!" I shouted. "Don't think I won't shoot!"

The man let go of her to face me. My eyes opened up wide when I saw the face. I saw my father again. He had a cold look in his eyes. He threw off the hat he wore on his head. He drew his gun and let it hang in his side.

"Are you telling your father what to do boy?"

I yelled out in shock. I fired all of my bullets at him. Five tore through his chest. One left a deep hole right between the eyes. Blood began to seep under the body. I looked at the woman. She had medium blonde hair, a youthful face, and was wearing casual clothes. There was fear in her eyes. She constantly changed her view between me and the dead man that lied in front of me.

"Listen, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm a..."

Soon, I was speechless. I looked at the body. I no longer saw my father, but another man lying there. He had a horrified expression on his face. He wore a black coat, casual shoes, and had bright blonde hair. He had a matching mustache. I backed up. I stared in horror. Thoughts were racing through my head. I turned around and ran. I ran as fast as I could to the inn. Blood filled my nose. I wanted to get it out. I couldn't. It was stuck in there, filling up my whole head. It was making me dizzy.

Along the way to the inn, I saw that someone was watching me. I looked to my right to see that hooded figure again. Time seemed to slow down when we made eye contact. A cold chill shot down my spine. I felt like I was being shook. When I blinked the figure disappeared. I was wondering if I was seeing things or if I was being followed.

I rushed into the inn. I ran up the stairs into my room. I slammed the door shut and locked it. I leaned against it and slowly slid down. I was breathing heavily. I tried to calm myself down. I couldn't. I could still see that horrified face. I shook my head. I ran my hands through my hair. As I did this, I stared at my gun. I actually killed with it. I didn't want _this _gun to be soiled. I shook my head. It wasn't the fact that I killed the man that was bothering me. It was what I saw. I only killed him because I saw my father.

"This can't be happening! Why is this happening to me now?"

I pushed the thoughts out of my head. I looked at my gun again. I slowly stretched out my arm to grab it. When I grasped the handle, I picked it up and brought it to me. I started to take out bullets from my pocket and inserted them into the chambers. I put the gun back in my holster. After that, I just sat there. I looked out the window. It was dark now. My eyes were starting to close. However, there was soon a loud knocking noise. I had an idea who it was.

"Harry!" Meryl shouted. "Open the door! Harry! I know you can hear me!"

"Maybe he's asleep," Millie shouted.

"Yeah right! I know what's going on inside his mind! I bet he was involved with..."

"All right!" I shouted. "I'll open the door!"

I quickly stood up and unlocked the door. I opened it up. However, Meryl stormed in. She gave me a cold stare that made me back up. That stare made me nervous, even right now. She made me back up all the way to the wall.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? You don't go around blasting people to bits!"

"How the hell do you know it was me," I replied, giving her a cold stare.

"Only you have a gun that would create a hole that big!"

"You don't know what happened! A girl was..."

"I know what happened! But that's beside the point! You shot him down just because he looked at you!"

"I didn't see him looking at me!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She asked with an evil tone.

"I saw someone else. My mind was screwing with me and I saw another man instead of him. I freaked out! Okay?"

"Oh really? And who did you see?"

"My father," I said coldly.

"And what about that freaked you out?"

"He's dead!" I shouted. "He's been dead for twelve years! And do you want to know how I know?! I saw him get shot down! Do you want to know who shot him?! _I _shot him! _I_ killed him! I shot him with six bullets right in the head until he was colder than your heart! You happy?!"

Meryl looked taken back. She gave me a shocked look. I had a cold and evil expression in my eyes. I started to walk away. She moved to the side so I could pass through. I looked at Millie. She had a sympathetic look on her face.

"Mr. Harry? I'm sorry about that."

"I don't need your sympathy! I need to get away from this hell hole of a past!"

I started down the stairs. However, I stopped. I realized that there still might be some people out there. I would have to wait a little while longer. I growled, turned around, and headed back into the room. I sat down on the bed and stared at the floor. I buried my face into my hands and let out a deep sigh. I raised my head and looked at Meryl again. I then changed my glance towards Millie.

"Sorry 'bout that. Lost control right there."

"No," Meryl began to say. "I suppose I _did _deserve that (although the cold remark was a little much)."

"It's okay Mr. Harry. We know how you feel."

"I told you. I'm not in the mood for sympathy right now. It only makes things worse for me. Thanks for tryin' though. Listen, let's just forget this happened and I'll go get us a drink."

"I suppose we could," Meryl said.

"I could use a drink or two!" Millie said cheerfully.

"All right. I'll be right back. Just hope no one tries to shoot me down."

As I stood up and walked off, I gave Meryl a motivation slap. Meryl staggered forward in surprise. She had an embarrassed look on her face. It then turned into an evil stare. I looked at her and grinned.

"Sorry. I needed something to cheer me up."

I turned around and headed back down the stairs. I heard Meryl mutter something as I did so. I chuckled. I went down as quickly as possible. I fixed my collar again to cover my face up as much as possible. I adjusted my sunglasses. I broke into a run to the liquor store. I hoped that I wouldn't be seen.

When I got to it, I slowly pushed the door open. I just as slowly walked in. I looked around. The store was freshly stocked. I looked over at the counter. There was no one at the counter. I walked over to the rack of wines and various liquors. I grabbed a large bottle and walked over to the counter. I placed $$100 on the counter. I also noticed a rack of mini glasses behind it. I grabbed two of them. I quickly ran off and headed back to the inn. It was even darker than before. No one was outside. I was glad that there was no around. Made me feel more comfortable. I ran up the stairs and into the room. I quickly closed the door behind me. I locked it and sat down at the table where Meryl and Millie were already sitting.

"That was fast," Millie said.

"So what did you get us?" Meryl asked.

"I got us the best stuff I could find. Here you go!"

I put the two glasses on the table. I undid the top and poured them each some of the liquor. Millie grabbed it and swallowed it. She had a big grin on her face. Meryl let out a sigh as she took a smaller intake. I grinned.

"Where's your glass?" Meryl asked.

"Right here," I said, raising the bottle.

I took a swig of it. I set it down and let out a sigh. I looked at Meryl. She had a surprised look on her face. Millie's face was already a little bit red. I sighed again. I poured some more into Millie's glass. She had another grin on her face. I chuckled. I put the bottle on the table again and looked at Meryl.

"So you really want to know about why I shot the old drunk?"

"Yes... I think."

"Hooray!" Millie said. "A story!"

"Is she drunk already?" I asked with a puzzled look on my face.

"Probably. You really must have gotten something pretty strong."

"Hmmm. Probably. Well, I suppose I should get to telling you the story now. Like I said before, it all happened twelve years ago. Although, I have to say, I can't remember all that much. Part of it's gone. I remember that this happened after Vash the Stampede was in our town. I have to say that there wasn't much left. For all I know, he was responsible.

"Anyway, I remember that I woke up the next morning with a gun under my coat. I'm still trying to remember how it got there. I was glad I had it though since I was one who liked to practice a lot. I'd usually have to find some rusty one that my old man had. Also, I wanted to have skills like Vash. I've been studying up on him since I was eleven. So, on and on I trained in my secret spot.

"However, about a month later, I was found out. My father was _so_ conveniently passing by. I know he was looking for me. The man was a drunk who was always looking for an excuse to beat me down. When he did, he'd make me redder than a man who got sunburned. This time, he tried something a bit different. First off, he dragged me back home by the collar of my shirt."

"Was he always like this?" Meryl asked.

"Yeah. He was like that ever since I was seven. He wanted to see me break down. Well, he hasn't accomplished that goal. That was thanks to my mother."

"What was your mother like?"

I went silent. I started to think about her. I started to think about how I left her. After everything she did for me, I ran off from her. It wasn't my fault though. I was scared. That was why I ran away. I shook the thoughts from my mind.

"She was... basically... a guardian angel. She looked so perfect that you would think she was one. She had medium brown hair, amber eyes, a friendly face... she was (like I said) perfect. She seemed to have eternal youth too. With her being stuck with that drunk father of mine you think she would have lost that rather quickly."

"I see," Meryl replied. "Should we... continue?"

"I suppose," I replied. "Anyway, my father basically dragged me back home. He threw me inside the house. My mother wasn't home at the time, so I was basically defenseless except for the gun. I could of used it, but I didn't want to risk screwing up and missing. He didn't know about it yet."

"Now tell me what you were doing out there boy!" He shouted.

"I told you! I was just walking around!"

"Don't lie to me. I'm the power in this house. I could squeeze your throat until you died right here and now if I wanted to."

"What do you mean _you're_ the power? With mom around, you're too scared to do anything!"

He gave me a backhand. I fell to the ground with a hard thud. I groaned in pain as I stood up. I gave him a dirty look. I wiped away the blood that was on my lip with my arm. My old man was giving me a cold stare.

"Now tell me what the hell you were doing out there?"

"How does getting the hell away from sound?"

He hit me again. Once again, I fell to the floor. It took even more effort to get off of the ground. I spit out the blood that was in my mouth. I gave him an even colder stare then before. Soon, an evil grin spread across his face. I gave him a puzzled look. He took out his gun and let it hang at his side.

"I'll give you one last chance. What were you doing out there?"

"You want to know?" I said firmly. "I'll tell you. I'm practicing to be like Vash. You heard me! Vash the Stampede! That way I can stand up to people like you!"

"So you wanna be like Vash the Stampede, huh? You're saying you want to go around killing everyone around you? You want to kill innocent people?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" I shouted as I stood up. "I didn't mean it that way!"

"Let me guess. You meant that you want to be hunted down like him. You want to be shot at like him. You're saying that you want to have this happen to you?"

He quickly raised his gun and fired. A bullet pierced the right side of my chest. I yelled in agonizing pain as blood started to seep into the floor. I grabbed the wound as I curled up. I wanted to stand up, but I couldn't. My old man walked up to me with his gun still drawn.

"So how did that feel? Do you still want to be like Vash?"

"I'd be anything if it would get me away from you!" I shouted.

He growled loudly he raised his gun at me. I growled quietly. Soon, there was a quick and quiet creaking sound. It was the door. I knew who it was. My mom had appeared. She ran inside the house. She was wearing jeans and a blue sweater. She stared at my old man and me.

"What are you doing?!" She said loudly.

"I'm teaching the boy a lesson."

"No! Keep away from him!"

"Sorry Joanne. I need to do what I have to do."

"No! You stay away from Harry!"

He looked at me and aimed the gun. Before he could pull the trigger, my mom grabbed him by the arm. Of course, my old man wasn't going to take that. He pulled his arm back and gave her a backhanded slap. She staggered back and hit the wall hard. I let out a low growl. That was the only thing I wouldn't let him get away with. I slowly stood up. I was breathing heavily as I held my wound.

"You stay away from her," I said.

He turned around to face me. He had an evil look in his eyes.

"Are you telling your father what to do boy?"

He raised his gun and aimed it at me. I let out a loud growl. WIth a sudden burst of energy, I shot forward. This caught him so off guard that he didn't even prepare for the tackle I gave. I knocked him to the ground. He let out a painful groan as he hit the ground. I raised my fist and punched him repeatedly. However, I was only able to get a few good punches in on him. He kicked me off of him. I flew back and landed on the ground with a loud thud.

I groaned in pain. I got to my knees. I looked at my old man. He was slowly standing up. I growled as I took out my gun. I pulled my arm back and through it at him. It made contact with his head. He yelled in pain as he fell to the ground. When the gun made contact with the floor, I ran to it and snatched it up off of the floor. I aimed it at him. He raised his head off of the ground as he stared at the barrel of my gun.

"What the hell?" He said loudly. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm doing what I should have done a long time ago," I said in a seemingly different voice. "You should always stay away from a hurricane. You don't know when it will make a turn for the worst."

"No! Don't!"

I fired. The bullet went right through his skull. Blood splattered onto me and part of the wall. I fired again and again and again and again and again. Then there was a loud click. I lowered the gun. I wanted to shoot him even more. I wanted to completely fill his body with lead. I turned my head to see my mother. She stared at me with shock. My eyes opened wide as I realized what had happened. I quickly turned my head to look at my father's dead body. It looked like his whole face was dyed red. I looked at my mother one more time. Then, I started to run off. I ran out of the house. My mother quickly ran after me.

"Harry! Hold on!"

I didn't hear her. I just kept on running. I ran out into the desert and I didn't care. I just wanted to get away. The only thing that I paid attention too was that I had the gun in my hand. Nothing else seemed to reach my mind.

"So what happened after that?" Meryl asked me.

I looked at her again. She had a really intrigued look on her face. I tried to think back. I couldn't think of what happened. All I could do was shrug my shoulders.

"Don't know. Last thing I remember was that I woke up in another town."

"Wow!" A drunken voice said. "What a great story!"

Meryl and I looked at Millie. She was drunk... again. I looked at the huge bottle of liquor. There was barely anything left. I gave Millie a rather annoyed look. I looked at Meryl again. She let out a deep sigh.

"You were right," I said. "She does get drunk at the worst times."

"Yep. And now I have to lug her back to the room. Oh well. I suppose we should get some rest anyway."

"Right. See you tomorrow."

Meryl walked over to Millie and struggled to help her up. She supported her out of the room and closed the door behind her. I continued to sit in the chair, thinking back. There were a couple things I didn't tell her. One, I still stayed in contact with my mother, although it wasn't major contact. I only sent her a letter every couple of months. Second, I remembered only a tad of what happened after I ran off.

I remembered that I was in the desert. I had lost a good amount of blood. I was staggering in the desert. Everything was blurry. After about a day of traveling, I fell to the ground. The gun was still in my hand though. That was the only body part I hadn't lost feeling in. I looked up. In front of me, I saw a pair of boots. They looked familiar, but I couldn't point them out. Then, I went unconscious. I never found out who that was.

"Was that you Vash? Was that you who saved me?"

I stood up and walked over to the bed and lied down. I turned my head to look at the window. I don't know why, but there was a change in the air. Something didn't seem right. I stood up and walked up to it. I looked outside to see if there was something going on. Nothing was happening. However, there was someone out there. It was that hooded figure. I growled loudly. I was beginning to know what was going. I turned around and ran to the door. I quickly opened the door. I ran down the hall, down the stairs, and outside. I looked around. The hooded figure didn't move this time. I grinned.

"Well, well, well. What a surprise. You actually have the guts to fight me. Now who are you? What do you want?"

"I've come for you," A soft voice said. "I've come to show you something."

"What? Your face?"

"I suppose I could, seeing that this will be your last day here."

The figure grabbed the hood and pulled it back. My eyes opened wide and my face went red. It was a woman with long blonde hair, gray eyes, skin that shined like silk, and a youthful appearance. However, her face looked blank and plain. Her eyes drooped and her lips neither smiled nor frowned. I had an idea of what was going on.

"Your with them, aren't you?" I asked.

"Very perceptive. You're sharper than they say, Mr. Johnson."

"I'm even sharper when comes to women," I said with a grin. "Now tell me, who are you?"

"My name is Natalya the psychic necromancer. Now I have a question for you. Do you know why I'm here for you?"

"Besides showing me something? I can take a guess. Your boss is POed that I ended his little money making operation, right?"

"Not quite. Although he is rather upset about the whole incident, he is rather glad too."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"You see, my employer has been looking for some new people to join him. After finally seeing how you handled that sort of situation, he felt you would be perfect."

"Sorry. I don't have any intention of helping him out."

"Unfortunately, you have no choice. We have methods of getting people on our side. I, for one, manipulate the dead. That is what I wanted to show you. Who you'll see will surprise you."

She seemed to float to the side. When she did, my eyes opened up wide with fear. Standing there was my father. He had scars of the bullet holes in his head. Blood stained his skin. He had an evil look in his eyes. A grin appeared on his face.

"You thought you were gonna get away with it, didn't you boy?"

I was speechless. My hand was shaking. I slowly backed up, staring at the resurrected corpse. He was just like when I shot him. He hasn't changed a bit. How was this possible? I tried to think of an explanation. I couldn't. I turned my head to face the girl.

"As you can see, I can restore them to the time of their death. It makes things all the more easier to strike fear into the target."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "This isn't real. I know your just playing mind games like you did with me earlier!"

"Are you saying that I'm not real?" My father said. "Heh. It looks like I'm going to have to teach you another lesson."

He raised the gun up. I concentrated on everything. Time seemed to slow down around me. I stared at the figure. Soon, I heard a click. My eyes opened wide. I rolled to the side as a bullet flew pass me. I watched it go by. I watched how it hit a wall and the wood split. I quickly got to my feet. I realized that it was real. I stared at my father again. He had an evil smile. He aimed his gun again and started to fire. I dodged left and right; I ducked and jumped; I rolled and dove. His bullets weren't depleting. How was this possible? I emptied the thoughts from my mind.

"Enough of this crap!" I shouted. "I'm done playing with you! I'm taking you down now!"

When he fired again, I dove towards him. He fired at me in the air, but I landed on the ground in a roll. When I got to my knees, I fired all six rounds at his head. Blood splattered as the bullets tore through the skull. He fell to the ground with a loud scream. I grinned. I walked up to him as I reloaded my gun.

"You're not quite done yet," The woman said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked as I glanced at her.

I looked at the body again. My eyes opened wide as I stared at my father's body in shock. The body started to stand up. The body (or something) was pushing out the bullets, because the pullets began to pop out. The wounds began to heal at an amazing rate. My father gave me an evil smile.

"You should have quit while you had the chance," He said.

"You can kill him the day you strike fear in him. Now finish the job."

The bloody hand raised the gun. I dived forward and shot all of my bullets again. They landed straight in his heart. I went into a roll. When I got to my knees, I heard a gun click. I looked up to stare at the barrel of my father's gun. I growled quietly. He chuckled evilly.

"You always were weak boy. Let's hope your mother will put up more of a fight."

"You stay away from her," I said quietly. "If you even come within one foot of her..."

"Sorry boy. Can't do that. Besides, you wouldn't be able to do anything. Now say goodbye to your final day here."

He began to pull the trigger. However, there was a loud creak. I turned my head to look at who had appeared. It was Meryl and Millie. Millie had her super stun gun out. Meryl had her coat opened up. There were at least a hundred Dillingers under her coat. I stared in disbelief.

"Don't even think you're going to get a shot off of him," Meryl said.

"Yeah! He's gonna take you down!" Millie said drunkenly.

"Who are they?" My father asked.

"Ah," The woman said. "You're the two woman who were with him through this little trip."

"That's right," Meryl said. "We're not going to end this thing yet!"

"That's right!" Millie shouted. "Now take this!"

She readied her stun gun. I stared at it. I quickly ducked to the ground. Millie fired the gun. The huge bullet transformed into its cross-like shape. It hit my father with amazing force. He flew backwards and yelled loudly. He hit the ground with a loud thud. Dust began to dance in the air. Meryl began to fire her Dillingers. The lead bullets continuously hit the body. Blood shot out everywhere. I could still hear him yelling. After about fifty Dillingers were used, she stopped firing. I quickly got to my feet and looked at them. They had big grins on their faces.

"Nice shot, sempai!" Millie said.

"Nice goin' girls!"

"No problem! We're here to help!"

"Why do you keep on forgetting that he won't die?" The woman asked me.

I looked at the body again. He was standing up again. His skin was stained with crimson red blood. He had an angered look on his face. He raised his gun and aimed. He wasn't aiming at me though. He was aiming at Meryl and Millie. He fired continuously at them. They ducked to try to avoid the fire. He laughed maniacally. I yelled loudly as I shot forward at him. I rammed him in the stomach with my elbow. He grunted as he flew back. I quickly got to my feet, as did he. When he stood up straight I quickly drew a gun from under my coat and aimed it at his head. It wasn't the one that I was using. It was the one that I used to kill him before.

"What the hell?!" He shouted with shock. "How did you get that?!"

"All I can say is that memories never die, only the people who are a part of them."

He began to have a fearful look again. I could he was thinking back to when I killed him. He was going to relive the memory. I fired all six bullets into the beings skull. He fell to the ground. When his body made contact with the earth, he seemed to explode into ash. A cold wind seemed to come out of nowhere, blowing the ash away. I stared at the ash. It seemed to dissipate. I changed my view to look at the woman. Her eyes were opened wide. She had a shocked expression on her face. I holstered the gun and grabbed my .44 magnum. I grabbed a bullet and put it in the chamber. I walked towards Natalya. I aimed the gun at her. She started to back up. I had a cold and evil look in my eyes. They seemed to flicker like a yellow flame in the moonlight.

"How dare you toy with me!" I shouted. "You used my fear against me! You wanted me to break down! But look at yourself now! _You're _the one who's afraid! I'm the one who's striking fear now! I'll do this to everyone else like I did to you!"

"Please!" She shouted in fear. "Have mercy!"

"You want mercy? Fine. I'll give you mercy. I'll release you from the pain and this earth!"

"No! Stop!"

I fired the gun at her head. It went right between her eyes. She flew back and hit the ground. Dust seemed to fly around her. The sand seemed to turn into a bright red that was visible even in the night. It then went still and gently floated back to the ground. I stared at the corpse. Every grain of sand around her head turned into crimson red color. I grunted. I reached into my pockets and grabbed six bullets. I reloaded my gun quickly. Still, my hand was shaking. I felt like I was taken over when I killed her. Seems like the demon inside of wasn't really dormant. It didn't matter though. What was done is done.

I turned around to face Meryl and Millie. They stared at me with shock. I adjusted my sunglasses so they could fully cover my eyes. I walked towards them as I holstered my gun. I gave them a rather uncomfortable look. Meryl looked as if she was trying to speak but she couldn't. I understood why.

"Mr. Harry?" Millie said. "Is she dead?"

"Yeah," I replied as I nodded. "Now let's wait at the bus stop. I want to get out of here before this turns into an investigation. I don't want to be involved with this anymore."

"R-right," Meryl said hesitantly.

I gave her a quick glance. She seemed to flinch as I did so. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh as I turned around. I walked forward to the bus stop. I heard the crunching of the dirt several seconds later, signaling that Meryl and Millie were finally starting to follow me. I wanted to turn my head just to look at them and tell them it was okay. I wanted to tell them that I wasn't going to be like that right now. I couldn't. Even when I was looking away from them they were scared of me. I let out another sigh as I wondered why they had to see that?

I walked up to a bench and slowly sat down. I looked at the schedule on the board. It was going to arrive in a few minutes. I changed my view looked out into the desert. It was so empty and dry. I felt like that. I felt as if I was just a hollow shell that was filled with nothing except lament and pain. I wished it would just go away.

"You know, you don't have to stand there," I said. "You can sit down if you want."

"No thanks," Meryl said.

"Yeah," Millie said. "We're fine standing here."

"Suit yourself."

I couldn't tell if they knew our not, but I _really_ needed their company right then and there. I continued to stare out into the desert. It was amazing how slow time was. Those five minutes seemed like an hour. When the bus did arrive, I quickly got in. I sat down and stared at the entryway. Meryl and Millie came in after a couple of seconds. I didn't make eye contact with them though. I thought that if I did, they would freak out. I dipped my head down as they passed by the seat I sat in.

I let out a small sigh. I looked out the window. The body lied there. It was as still as the wind. There was no movement whatsoever. This didn't make me feel any better though. I was glad I killed her... in a sense. I was basically taken over. That's what made this moment sour. No matter how victorious I was, something like this happening to me ruined everything.

"Harry?" Meryl said quietly. "Are you all right?"

"No. Not really."

"Cheer up Mr. Harry," Millie said. "Something like this happened to Mr. Vash too."

"Did he have to kill a person because of it?"

"Um... no."

Meryl slapped her head. I looked at her and chuckled. When she looked at me, I quickly turned my head and looked away. Soon after, the bus started to move. I looked out the window as we departed from the town. I looked at the body. The ground was fairly red. I squinted my eyes when I noticed something. It looked like the head was... moving. It seemed to turn to look at me.

My eyes opened wide. I blinked a couple times. It was back in its normal position. I shook my head. I leaned back on the chair and groaned.

"Now what's wrong?" Meryl asked.

"Nothing. My eyes were playing tricks on me."

"Let's hope so. Now where are we going to this time?"

"I suppose that I need to pay someone a visit. I have feeling someone's going to pop up there. I need to make sure that nothing happens."

"Who is it Mr. Harry?" Millie asked me. "Is it a friend of yours?"

"I'm not going to tell you," I said with a grin. "You're going to have to find out for yourself. Besides, I just want to rest. I rather not answer any more questions for the rest of the night."

"Please?" Millie pleaded. "Can't you tell us?"

"No can do."

"Oh. You're no fun."

"I bet he won't tell us 'cause it's a girl he knows, isn't it Harry?"

I laughed quietly. I adjusted my sunglasses and collar. I _was_ too tired to answer anything. I just wanted to rest. With everything that went on in this town, I needed some relaxation. I closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep. That was seriously the most (and only) peaceful thing that I got that day.


End file.
